When I first saw the movie trailer for “The 5th Wave,” I thought it looked like an interesting plot and set of characters. Also, the amount of action in the trailer made my heart start to pound. The main character’s voice calmly explains the situation even though it looks like an epidemic. Intrigued by the movie, I decided to grab the book to compare.  

The book, written by Rick Yancey, is the first of the science fiction trilogy.

Its spectacular plot is about aliens that take over the world and how they organize epidemics, or “waves,” to try to wipe out the human population. Each wave contains new horrors that affect the world such as knocking out electricity, a huge tsunami that wipes out all the major cities, a major virus and silencers who are there to finish off the population. At the time the story begins, the fifth wave has not occurred yet, so they have to wait in dread.

The main protagonist, a young girl named Cassie, survives the wave and begins a journey through the ruined Earth to try to rescue her little brother. This book is filled with plot twists and captivating characters that made the story and also offers a comparison and background for before and after their world changed.

I highly recommend this book even if someone has seen the movie. It was the perfect length and the author didn’t drag out the story. It also gave the characters problems that made my heart start to beat fast, like when Cassie goes head to head with a silencer.

Even though it is a 497 page book, it only took me a couple of days to read. I read it all during my second hour, journalism, and since I love to read, I often made time so I could read after school. It was really hard to do, but since the book was that good it was worth it to put off my homework and other after school activities.

“The Infinite Sea,” which is the second book to the series, is already out and the third book, “The Last Star” is set to come out in May 2016. I will most likely be adding the second book to my gift list. I hope the second book will be as exciting as the first one.
My favorite part about the book is despite the chaos, Cassie stays strong and fights through all the extra terrestrials to rescue her little brother and make sure her family doesn’t fall completely apart.